


Complicated

by meracanaries



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-09-30 20:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meracanaries/pseuds/meracanaries
Summary: Laurel is pretty sure that she doesn't stand a chance with Dinah. Dinah is pretty sure that she doesn't want to give them a chance. Will they find a way to forget the past or will everything crash and burn?





	1. Chapter 1

It was Friday evening, Laurel was standing in front of the police department staring at the bag in her hand nervously, considering to turn around on the spot and just to head back to her place. 

She didn’t need to do this, in fact it was probably stupid that she even considered it a good idea in the first place.  
And yet, here she was, knowing pretty well that she would head inside in a few minutes, she just needed a bit more time to regain her usual confidence. 

She’d be ready to head in any second, there was nothing special about it, she was just heading back home from work and had bought too much food to eat all by herself and since she was nearby she had the idea to share her dinner with Dinah, it was all just coincidentally, except that it totally wasn’t for Laurel, but then again Dinah didn’t need to know about that. 

It was not like she stood a single chance with Dinah anyways, too much had happened between them, her best shot was that Dinah would eventually forgive her somewhere in the distant future, Laurel knew that and she would make sure that Dinah had a reason to forgive her. 

She took in another deep breath before she started to walk towards the police department, making her way towards Dinah’s office. 

The halls were pretty empty already, it had gotten late after all but Laurel was still pretty confident that Dinah would still be here, hell Laurel herself would probably still be in her own office if it hadn’t been for her brilliant idea to bring Dinah some food. 

As expected Dinah was still sitting in her office, leaning over her desk, buried in work. 

She looked up though the second that Laurel stepped through the door, visibly surprised by her unexpected visitor. 

"Laurel, what are you doing here?"  
"I was just on my way home and bought some food until I realized that it was a bit too much, so since I already was nearby I thought you might appreciate something to eat.", Laurel said holding up her bag of food offering a small smile.  
Dinah sighed but motioned towards the chair in front of her work desk. 

"What are you waiting for?" Dinah asked when Laurel didn’t move, still taken by surprise that Dinah hadn’t sent her away yet.  
"You’re actually ok with us eating together?" She asked stunned while Dinah raised her eyebrow. 

"I guess so, you’re already here, aren’t you? It’s not like I’m going to deny some food and I certainly won’t take the food and then send you away. So only option that remains is us eating dinner together. Now please sit down before I change my mind." 

Laurel nodded hastily sitting down on the chair in front of Dinah’s desk, placing the food bag between them before she looked up at Dinah who was looking at her like she was lost in her thoughts.

As soon as Dinah realized that Laurel had noticed her staring she shook herself out of her thoughts, quickly thinking of something to say. 

"So, what did you buy us?" Laurel looked down at the bag and back up at Dinah.  
"Pasta from the little Italian restaurant that’s right around the corner from my office. You do eat Pasta, right?"  
"Who doesn’t eat Pasta?" Dinah replied laughing before she grabbed one of the boxes that were filled with Pasta.

Laurel grabbed the other box, realizing that Dinah had taken the box that she had ordered for herself.  
She hesitated for a second, thinking about wether she should ask Dinah to change boxes, but then again Dinah was already digging into her box of Pasta and she looked really satisfied so Laurel stayed silent and instead started to eat out of the other box. 

After a while Dinah looked up from her box looking at Laurel curiously.  
"Why are you really here?" She asked earning a confused look from Laurel in return.  
"What do you mean? I told you, I was close by and thought you’d appreciate some food."

"And that’s all? You’re really just here to bring me some food, nothing else? You don’t need a favor or anything?" Dinah asked warily looking at Laurel skepticism evident on her face. 

"You really don’t trust me at all, do you?" Laurel asked voice quivering just a little bit and she already hated herself for feeling so weak, she couldn’t break down in front of Dinah, not like this, she didn’t want the police captain to see her like this, but her words had hurt Laurel more than she wanted to admit. 

"Laurel, it’s not like that. Do you want the truth?" Dinah asked gaze softening a bit before it turned back to serious. 

Laurel nodded slowly, not sure if she did in fact want to know the truth.  
"I don’t trust you, at least not yet. Yes, you did some stuff to redeem yourself and I’m honestly starting to believe that you are in fact changing but it is going to take time and a lot of work for me to really trust you. Which… it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to trust you because I do, but you know with everything that has happened in the past," Dinah trailed off before she took a deep breath, finishing her sentence "I’m just not ready yet, I hope that some day I’ll be able to oversee what happened with Vinny, just not right now." 

She looked at Laurel who was biting down on her lip hard, almost drawing blood.  
"I see. I should probably go." Laurel said, standing up abruptly, almost letting her chair tumble to the floor. 

"Laurel, wait." Dinah tried to stop her but Laurel already slammed the office door shut behind her, leaving Dinah on her own.

Dinah leaned back in her chair with a sigh.  
She hadn’t intended for things to escalate like this.  
She never should’ve asked why Laurel had come over in the first place, she should’ve just kept her mouth shut and enjoyed the free food. 

She really couldn’t hold it against Laurel how she had reacted, she could see that the DA was trying and she appreciated it more than anything but Dinah still wasn’t over Vincent’s death and she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to get over the fact that Laurel was responsible for his death. 

She had seen the regret in Laurel’s eyes when she confessed to her that she regretted killing him weeks ago and Laurel’s speech at the courthouse had made Dinah absolutely certain that Laurel’s intentions were good now, but there still was all that pain inside of her that Vincent’s death had caused her.

So how was she supposed to get over it? Maybe she wasn’t trying enough, maybe she should’ve cut Laurel some slack, but every time she saw the attorney she was reminded of her loss and it still hurt. 

Dinah knew though that if she kept pushing Laurel away like that and if she didn’t show her that she truly appreciated the changes that Laurel was currently going through, she might fall back into old behaviors which was the last thing that Dinah wanted. 

So she had to find a way to keep herself at distance while simultaneously giving Laurel at least a sign of appreciation, the only question that still remained was how was she supposed to do that. 

She looked down at the mostly empty box of pasta and at the other box that Laurel had left behind when she fled from her office.  
An idea started blossoming in Dinah’s mind, maybe there was a way to make things right.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Dinah was waiting for Laurel in front of her office.   
She had a bag filled with donuts in her hand that she hoped would help her since she had no idea if Laurel would be willing to talk to her at all. 

Honestly, if Laurel didn’t want to talk Dinah couldn’t even be mad at her because she had every reason to be upset. 

Dinah looked up from the bag in her hand, seeing Laurel coming towards her, seemingly concentrated on a file that she was holding in her hands. 

She obviously wasn’t aware that Dinah was there yet and Dinah thought for a brief second that maybe she should say something, but right when she wanted to open her mouth Laurel looked up from her file, spotting the police captain, freezing on the spot immediately. 

She frowned, before her gaze turned cold.   
"What do you want?" She asked, fiddling with her office keys, finally managing to open the door, almost bumping against Dinah when she walked through the door. 

Dinah followed her into the office, not sure if it was a good idea to do so.   
"I wanted to apologize for what I said yesterday. I brought you some donuts." 

Laurel sat down behind her desk, avoiding to look at Dinah. 

Dinah waited for a reply patiently but when Laurel remained silent, she started to speak once again.   
"Don’t you want to say something?"

Laurel looked up slowly, her look almost burning through Dinah who took a step backwards.   
"What do you want me to say? You made yourself pretty clear yesterday so I’m a bit confused about the fact that you’re here right now."   
Laurel’s gaze went towards the door, almost like she was looking for a way to escape the situation. 

"I didn’t mean what I said." Dinah said while Laurel laughed bitterly.   
"Please, who are you trying to fool, we both know that’s a lie. You meant what you said, there’s no need to take something back just to make me feel better about it."

Dinah sighed, she wasn’t sure what she had expected, she knew how stubborn Laurel was, she knew that it wouldn’t be easy.   
"Fine, I meant what I said. But I didn’t want to hurt your feelings with what I said."

"Oh so you think that I have feelings? Well that’s more than I expected." Laurel stated grabbing the file that she had placed on her desk. 

"Seriously, what do you want to hear?" Dinah asked, slowly but surely getting angry by Laurel’s behavior. She wanted to apologize but the DA made it incredibly hard. 

"Who said that I want to hear anything? You’re the one who showed up here, I didn’t ask you to come here with your sad attempt of an apology." Laurel snapped back at her motioning to the bag of donuts that Dinah was still carrying. 

"You know what?" Dinah said voice low leaning over the desk getting awfully close to Laurel who involuntarily pushed her chair back to get away from Dinah. 

"You should go." Laurel said gritting her teeth trying not to look at Dinah which was incredibly hard since she was still right in front of her.

"So do I get this right, whenever I say something that you dislike, you either run away or you tell me to leave?" Dinah asked not even thinking about leaving the office. 

"Can’t you just leave me alone, do I need to call security detail?" Laurel asked annoyed while Dinah smirked, finally pulling back from her decision, sitting back down on the chair. 

"Do I need to remind your that your security detail is made up of the officers that I ordered to protect you?" She smirked satisfied while Laurel rolled her eyes.   
"What is the point of me having security when they don’t protect me from the threat?"   
"You think I’m a threat to you?" Dinah asked amused, it was almost like she was enjoying this and Laurel sighed.   
"Yes you’re a danger to my nerves." Laurel finally said while Dinah smiled at her. 

"So do you want some donuts?" Dinah said holding up the bag hoping that Laurel’s resistance would break eventually.   
She knew how stubborn the other woman could be, but everyone had a weak spot, she just had to find Laurel’s. 

"Seriously, why can’t you just leave, it’s not like I’m going to out there and just randomly kill someone because you pissed me off. I actually kind of enjoy being the DA, so I’m not willing to risk that." Laurel said throwing Dinah a challenging glance. 

"Good, I don’t want you to risk it." Dinah replied crossing her arms in front of her chest leaning back slightly on the chair waiting for Laurel’s next move.

"I don’t care about what you want." Laurel promptly shot back, glaring at Dinah who stayed relaxed and it was honestly infuriating Laurel a little bit that she was able to stay this calm. 

It was not like Laurel wanted to pick a fight, hell, if it had been up to her they’d be in a very different situation right now, but judging from Dinah’s current behavior that was not going to happen anytime soon.

Laurel despised to admit it but Dinah’s words the previous evening had hurt her. 

She had been almost desperate for the captain to forgive her and knowing that it would be a lot of work and that Dinah still didn’t trust her despite the hard work Laurel had put in already, it had thrown her off a little bit and for a brief moment she had considered going back to her old ways, but she wanted this, she wanted to do better. 

She still didn’t want to turn into Laurel 2.0 but the previous few months had given her a taste of how life could be when she put in the extra effort to be at least a somewhat decent human being and even though she didn’t want to admit it, she occasionally enjoyed working with other people to do some good. 

However she had to stay at least somewhat true to herself so right now it was her goal annoy Dinah to a point where she would just give up, at least for a couple of days.   
She needed some distance between them, Laurel wasn’t sure if she would do something seriously dumb if Dinah stayed around for any longer, she might’ve briefly considered kissing the other woman earlier when she had gotten into her personal space.

"Laurel, you still in there?"   
Dinah was looking at Laurel almost concerned and it warmed Laurel’s heart for a few seconds before she reminded herself that she was supposed to be mad at her. 

"Those are for me, right?" Laurel asked motioning towards the donut bag that was now resting on her desk. 

"Yes?" Dinah asked reluctantly and Laurel smiled sweetly. 

"Great, if I accept them, which I am doing now that means that you can leave, right?" She raised her eyebrow suggestively while Dinah looked slightly baffled. 

"I… thought we’d eat them together, like breakfast…" She said and Laurel quickly shook her head. 

"No, I don’t think so, I’d rather enjoy my breakfast alone. You can take one with you though if you want to." She held out the bag towards Dinah who just sighed before she stood up and turned towards the door. 

"I guess I’ll see you around." Dinah said, Laurel just carelessly shrugging her shoulders like she couldn’t care less.

Dinah left the office, closing the door behind her quietly.   
Well that didn’t go as she had planned.


	3. Chapter 3

Laurel was bored. Sure, she had a lot of work to do and sometimes she still struggled with all those paragraphs but by now she was mostly managing it well.  
Her gaze dropped to the phone for the fourth time that morning.

She hadn’t heard from Dinah in a few days, which wasn’t that unusual but it still bothered her.

She knew that it was her fault, she probably shouldn’t have sent Dinah away when she came over with her peace offering, she surely was just giving her space.

Laurel looked at the file in front of her before she took a deep breath.   
She couldn’t concentrate not when she had the mental image of Dinah inside her head the whole time. 

The police captain proved to be pretty distracting and Laurel wasn’t sure if she hated or loved it, but it was certainly keeping her from her work which wasn’t a good thing. 

There had to be a way to change Dinah’s mind, she needed to convince her somehow that she was worth it.   
The thing was, Laurel herself wasn’t sure if she was worth it.   
She had fucked up a lot of times, maybe she didn’t deserve Dinah’s forgiveness. 

Despite it all she felt that there was something, something truly special between them.   
She knew that neither one of them was completely innocent, they both had their faults and struggles, maybe that was the reason that she felt so drawn to Dinah.

Laurel didn’t notice how her door was opened, she was lost in her thoughts so when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, she jumped. 

"What the…" Laurel turned around to twist the arm of the intruder around but stooped as soon as she realized that it was Dinah.   
"You have a really strange way of saying hello." Dinah said with a hint of a grin while Laurel rolled her eyes. 

"I didn’t realize it was you."  
"Yeah I noticed. Where were you with your mind? You don’t seem like someone who’s daydreaming a lot… or at all to be honest." Dinah asked eying Laurel curiously who didn’t know what to answer, she could hardly tell Dinah the truth, at least not yet, it was way too soon to talk about her feelings, neither one of them was ready for that kind of confession.

"I was thinking about taking a hot bath as soon as I am out of this office this evening."   
Laurel said quickly, hoping that Dinah would buy her lie. 

Dinah seemed seriously surprised by the statement but at least she wasn’t suspicious. 

"You do know that the day has just started and it’s still several hours until you get home, right?"   
"I am aware but a girl can dream, right? Anyway, what are you doing here?" Laurel asked sitting back down on her chair before she pointed for Dinah to sit down as well. 

"Straight to the point, huh?" Dinah asked and Laurel smirked.   
She thought about making a remark to tell Dinah that her intentions were anything but straight, but then again she didn’t want Dinah to know about it yet. 

"I thought that if you go to such great length and show up here in person, it must be something important."   
"Aw that’s cute, are you trying to flatter me?" Dinah asked sarcastically.   
"Is it working?" Laurel asked back raising her eyebrow while Dinah’s eyes widened almost comically.

"Uhhh anyways, I need your expertise on something." Dinah stammered clearly still shaken by Laurel’s last remark. 

"Legal expertise or the murder kind?" Laurel asked still smirking while Dinah shook her head.   
"Not funny, if you want me to believe that you changed maybe you shouldn’t be joking about actual murder." 

"Then maybe you shouldn’t come here asking me for advice on that matter." Laurel replied looking at Dinah seriously.   
"Besides why are you here, I know that it’s not for legal advice, you would’ve called if that were the case." Laurel continued calmly leaning back on her chair. 

She knew that this time she was in full control of the situation, Dinah wanted something, something that clearly only Laurel could give her because otherwise she would’ve asked someone else, so right now, Laurel had the upper hand and frankly she quite enjoyed making Dinah squirm a bit. 

"I need you to help me." Dinah said before she bit her lip like she was already regretting that she asked.   
"Help you how?" Laurel replied now seriously curious what this was all about. 

"I need you to suit up and go into the field with me." Dinah said after she took a deep breath looking at Laurel expectantly. 

"I’m sorry, what?" Laurel asked completely taken by surprise. 

"You heard what I said." Dinah replied and of course Laurel had heard her, she just felt like she had miss understood something. 

"I did, I just don’t understand. Have you lost your mind or something? Because last time that I remember you were the one who made it pretty clear that suiting up again was out of the picture due to the FBI deal. Besides that, what would I even suit up in, can’t take the Black Siren suit, I’m supposed to be this earth’s Laurel." 

Dinah looked to the floor and Laurel quickly shook her head.   
"No, forget about it. I’m not doing that." 

"Laurel, please. We still have the old suit." Dinah said pleading voice. 

"No, I can’t do that. I’m not her, no matter how much everyone wants me to be, I am not and I can’t ever be, this would only make things worse. Sorry Dinah, I just… can’t." Laurel said defeatedly while she tried to ignore the disappointed look on Dinah’s face. 

"I know that this is a lot to ask and I get why you don’t want to do it, but I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important." Dinah tried once again and it wasn’t like Laurel didn’t want to help her, but she couldn’t be the old Laurel and she knew it, if she were to take her suit everyone would expect her to turn into something she wasn’t, someone she wasn’t. 

"Do you understand though? Because for someone who says that they understand you surely are trying a lot to push me into something I don’t want." 

"So you can take Laurel’s name and act like you’re her to the rest of the world, but refuse to use her suit one single time?" Dinah asked a hint of anger in her voice. 

"Wow you really want to play the identity card again? You’re really one to talk, Black Canary." Laurel shot back.   
She knew it would hurt, she kind of wanted it to hurt, except that when she saw the hurt expression on Dinah’s face she wished she never had said anything.   
"You know what, forget about it, I’ll just do it on my own." Dinah said voice breaking slightly towards the end before she jumped up and rushed out of the office, leaving Laurel alone once again. 

Laurel thought about going after her, she was kind of desperate to run after Dinah to be honest, but she knew that she would only screw things up for worse.

She said what she said, she couldn’t just take back those words and now things between them were probably even more complicated than they had been before. 

Laurel realized that maybe she just couldn’t win with how things were. 

Had she accepted Dinah’s offer she probably could’ve convinced the police captain that she really was changing but it would’ve meant that the expectations would be raised even higher than they previously were and Laurel honestly was struggling with some of them as they were right now.   
By declining though, she had hurt Dinah and also shown her that she hadn’t changed all that much, so what was she supposed to do? 

She couldn’t be someone she wasn’t, but she couldn’t stay the way she was if she wanted to win Dinah’s heart either. 

Perhaps she needed to face the truth, there was no way, the possibility of her and Dinah together just wasn’t in the picture, at least not on this earth, perhaps not in this lifetime. 

It was hard to accept but eventually that was just the way things were supposed to be, she couldn’t fight for something that wasn’t meant to be, she was tired of trying and continuously failing.

She couldn’t make Dinah fall for her, they might’ve been similar in some ways, but Dinah deserved someone better, someone who could love her properly. 

Laurel wasn’t sure if she was meant to be with someone else, maybe she was destined to stay on her own, to love and not be loved in return, maybe she had screwed up too badly in the past and this was her punishment for it.


	4. Chapter 4

Dinah should’ve known better, she knew that it was a dangerous thing to do, that was the reason why she had asked Laurel for backup in the first place.  
She couldn’t even say that she was angry at Laurel because she knew that the DA was right, Laurel couldn’t just dress up as the old Black Canary, she was already doing one hell of a job being the old Laurel Lance for the public, she couldn’t be that and the Black Canary, it was just too much. 

She knew that she had pushed Laurel more than necessary and she should’ve expected her to snap eventually, but the comment about being the Black Canary had hurt a lot more than she cared to admit. 

The thing was, Laurel was right, she wasn’t the original Black Canary and she would never be, same as Laurel would never be able to turn into the original Laurel.  
She was her own person as was Laurel. 

Dinah understood that now more than before but she still could’ve used Laurel’s help, too bad that she wasn’t getting it. 

She knows that it is a horrible idea to go in alone, she knows she shouldn’t be doing it but here she is, waiting for the bad guy to show up.  
She should’ve taken a few officers with her as reinforcements, she knows that she should’ve taken them with her but after her conversation with Laurel she just needed to get away and clear her head, she couldn’t do that with the rest of the police force behind her. 

Heading straight into trouble on her own was a stupid idea, yet another thing that Dinah had already acknowledged and chose to ignore it in the end. 

With one thing Laurel had been right though, she would’ve risked her deal by suiting up again, so her bulletproof vest had to do the job. 

She should’ve asked Oliver to come along but he had his own troubles and probably didn’t want to come along in the first place.

Dinah noticed movement at the entrance of the warehouse and heard three different voices, that were arguing with each other.  
It could’ve been an advantage that they were distracted but Dinah wasn’t sure if there were more of them waiting outside. 

"Have you completely lost your mind?" Dinah almost yelled out loud but quickly covered her mouth, whirling around seeing Oliver cowering behind her. 

"What are you doing here?" Dinah whispered careful not to alarm the drug dealers that were still arguing with each other while they slowly went deeper into the warehouse. 

"Laurel called me, sounding really worried about you doing something stupid. And I thought that if she is worried, there might be a reason for that." 

Dinah’s eyes widened, Laurel had called him? Laurel was worried about her?

"There’s five more of them outside, if we get those guys deeper inside we can take them out easily without making much noise. You should make sure that your police force will be here shortly though, I don’t know for how long we can take the five waiting outside." Oliver noted, ignoring how his previous comment about Laurel had thrown Dinah off. 

"You take the left one, I’ll make sure that right and middle are covered." Oliver said in a hushed voice while Dinah nodded, still not fully recovered from what Oliver had said about Laurel. 

They got the bad guys, the three inside the warehouse were quickly taken down, however the five that were waiting outside were a bit harder to fight.  
By the time the reinforcement arrived, four of them were already arrested, however the last one was trying to make a run for it, Dinah chasing after him.  
She didn’t see the knife that he was carrying, but she definitely felt in when the blade hit her shoulder.  
It didn’t stop her from arresting him though, Oliver arriving a few seconds later. 

"Are you okay?" He asked looking at her worried. 

"I will be, it’s just a scratch. Can you handle it from here? I think I need to go home and take a look at that." Dinah said motioning to her shoulder with her left hand. 

"Of course, take care." Oliver said before he pushed the guy towards the police force while Dinah started her walk home. 

Her shoulder hurt like hell, the wound had to be pretty deep and it was bleeding, maybe she should’ve asked one of her colleagues to drive her to the hospital, but then again Dinah just wanted to go home.  
She could patch herself up just fine and there would be no questions, which was something that would happen if she were to go to the hospital. 

Dinah was deep in her thoughts when she arrived at her apartment which was probably the reason why she didn’t notice that the lights were already on when she stepped into her home. 

The bigger was the surprise when she stepped into her living room, finding Laurel sitting on the couch, worried expression on her face. 

"What are you doing here?" Dinah asked before she added "and how the hell did you manage to get in?" 

"I know a thing or two about breaking in, please don’t call the police." Laurel replied with a hint of a smirk before she saw the red bloodstain on Dinah’s shoulder. 

"You’re hurt. Didn’t Oliver arrive in time?" She asked frowning slightly before she stood up and walked closer towards Dinah who took a step back hesitantly. 

"Thanks for calling him, he was very helpful. I should get something for my shoulder, be right back." Dinah said rushing towards the bathroom where her first aid kit was. 

Her mind was racing, Laurel was in her apartment, Laurel who shouldn’t be in her apartment.  
Additionally she was worried which wasn’t just unusual, it also made things pretty complicated because it hinted at the possibility of Laurel caring about something and while that wasn’t a bad thing at all, Dinah didn’t want to be the one who Laurel cared for. 

Things were already fucked up between them, she didn’t want to make things worse with whatever it was that was currently happening between them.  
She could’ve told Laurel to leave her alone but something inside of her told Dinah that it would only upset the DA and that she would refuse to leave anyway.

"Need some help with that?" Dinah flinched under Laurel’s touch and Laurel quickly pulled her hand back from Dinah’s back like she had burned her hand. 

"Sorry." Laurel mumbled looking at the floor.  
"I think I can manage on my own." Dinah said silently while Laurel raised her eyebrow. 

"Don’t be ridiculous, this is going to hurt a lot, you probably need some stitches, that looks pretty deep. Knife?" She asked eying the cut in Dinah’s sweater.  
"Yeah, I didn’t see it in time, otherwise this probably could’ve been avoided." Dinah replied, searching for the first aid kit and finally finding it. 

Laurel walked out of the bathroom, Dinah following after her walking back to the living room where she sat down on the couch. 

"Undress." Laurel said while she took the kit from Dinah.  
"Excuse me??" Dinah said mouth opening in shock. 

"What, do you want me to clean the wound while you’re wearing that, because trust me that’s going to be difficult." Laurel said without looking up but Dinah was pretty sure that she was smirking, because of course Laurel had chosen her words intentionally, she never did something without having an intention. 

"What are you waiting for?" Laurel asked looking up briefly meeting Dinah’s gaze.

"Could you turn around?" Dinah asked feeling how her cheeks turned red, she shouldn’t feel this uncertain about this, but she did.

"Yeah, sure." Laurel replied raising an eyebrow at Dinah before she turned around and waited for Dinah to take off her shirt. 

Dinah tried to take it off but since she couldn’t really move her shoulder without pain, she wasn’t able to get out. 

"Laurel, could you maybe help me?" Dinah asked annoyed by the fact that she couldn’t even take off her shirt on her own. 

"Of course, can you hold your arm up or does it hurt too much?" Laurel asked gently, slowly coming closer. 

Dinah held up her arm as far as possible, it hurt a lot but with Laurel’s help they managed to get the shirt over Dinah’s head.  
Laurel tried really hard not to stare at Dinah who was meeting her gaze now, eyes showing so many mixed emotions that Laurel suddenly felt dizzy. 

"Uhm, Laurel… we wanted to clean the wound." Dinah gently reminded Laurel after a few minutes of silence between them where they just looked at each other.  
"Right, yes." Laurel shook herself out of her thoughts that weren’t remotely close to appropriate.  
"Let me take a look at that." She said before she reached out for Dinah’s shoulder who closed her eyes at the touch. 

"Tell me when it hurts, I don’t want to hurt you." Laurel said before she reached for a pad to clean the wound. 

Dinah didn't say a single word while Laurel cleaned the wound, she flinched once or maybe even twice, but apart from that she remained still. 

The apartment was silent, Laurel could feel both of their heartbeats, Dinah’s heart beating a bit faster than her own. 

"Okay, this is going to hurt but I need to disinfect the wound. Do you want something to bite?" Laurel asked while Dinah shook her head.  
"Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty damn stubborn?" Laurel asked with a smile while Dinah rolled her eyes. 

"That’s coming from the right person." Dinah replied smiling as well, even though her smile seemed a lot more forced than Laurel’s. 

"Can you promise me something?" Laurel asked while she put some disinfection spray onto a pad. 

"Depends on what you’re asking for." Dinah replied hissing in pain when the pad touched her skin. 

"Shhh it’s okay." Laurel whispered gently touching Dinah’s lower arm.

"If I were to take the old Canary suit, promise me you won’t head out there on your own again, ever."


	5. Chapter 5

Dinah was staring at Laurel, unable to find any words at all. 

"Did you just..." Dinah started but stopped her sentence still not sure if she had understood what Laurel said. 

"I won’t risk you getting hurt again, I thought Oliver could handle it but obviously not, so if you choose to do stupid stuff like this more often, I at least want to be nearby." Laurel said reluctantly looking at Dinah. 

"Laurel... You don’t have to do this, I can protect myself pretty well, I understand why you didn’t want to put on the suit in the first place." Dinah said careful not to upset Laurel, she never knew what was the right thing to say when it came to the attorney and right now she wanted things to be right between them. 

"No offense, but your shoulder suggests otherwise." Laurel stated drily while Dinah rolled her eyes. 

"I was distracted, okay?" She said while Laurel raised her eyebrow. 

"By what?" Dinah blushed, she couldn’t tell Laurel the truth, she couldn’t just say that she was distracted by the thought of Laurel worrying about her. 

She wasn’t even sure herself why the thought had distracted her as much as it did, she didn’t know what it meant.   
How can you tell someone something you don’t nearly comprehend?

"Dinah?" Laurel asked sounding way more patient than it was usual for her. 

Dinah sighed before she looked at Laurel. 

"I don’t know. I wish I could explain, but I… I just don’t know myself." Dinah said searching for the right words to say, not really succeeding. 

"So first you asked me to suit up and now you don’t want that anymore?" Laurel asked way more calmly than Dinah would’ve expected her to. 

"It’s not that, I just realized that you were right. You’re your own person, you don’t have to act like Laurel and you don’t need to put on her suit, it would only make things more complicated for you and I don’t want that because I can see that you’re already trying, it wouldn’t be fair to make it harder for you."   
Laurel reached for a bandage to wrap around Dinah’s shoulder before she looked at the police captain again. 

"What if I want to do it, what if I want to put on the suit, what if I want to be better?" 

"You don’t need the suit to be better." Dinah said with a hint of a smile crossing over her face. 

Laurel looked at her surprised, maybe there still was some hope that Dinah would really forgive her, she certainly seemed to be the only one who at least somewhat believed in her. 

Perhaps things weren’t as hopeless as Laurel had made them out to be, if there was even a little chance that she could win Dinah’s heart or at least her friendship, Laurel would fight to be better and stay on the good side. 

"You really mean that?" Laurel asked, still not fully able to wrap her mind around the possibility of Dinah really meaning what she had said. 

"Yes, I do. That being said, if you absolutely want to do the whole suit thing I guess we can try?" Dinah said before she yelped in pain. 

"What the hell, Laurel." Dinah said while Laurel looked at her apologetical. 

"I’m sorry that was a lot tighter than I thought it would be, can you hold still, I need to rewrap the bandage if it’s too tight." Laurel stated and started to take the bandage off again. 

"Can I ask you something?" Laurel asked while she unwrapped the bandage shortly looking at Dinah before she refocused on her task. 

"What is it?" Dinah asked closing her eyes, trying not to focus on the pain that was shooting through her shoulder. 

"You still have your immunity deal intact and until now you seemed very focused on keeping it that way, what changed?" 

Dinah remained silent for a while and right when Laurel wanted to tell her to forget about the question she finally answered. 

"I love my job, I don’t want to risk that or my freedom and neither do I want to risk yours, but the thing is… I miss being out on the streets like that, doing good stuff as police captain is great and all, but being Black Canary? That’s different and I don’t mean the bad kind of different. I’ve missed it for months and I don’t want to hide that part of me away anymore. Plus I think we’d make a good team, as long as we’re not getting caught, that is." 

Laurel smiled before she replied.   
"Who would’ve guessed that you have a rebellious side." 

"Oh you have no idea." Dinah mumbled while Laurel eyed her curiously. 

"Then it’s settled, as soon as your shoulder is healed, we’re going back into the field." Laurel said while Dinah looked at her surprised. 

"What do you mean as soon as my shoulder is healed?" 

"You don’t really think that you’re going out there while you’re injured, because believe me that is not happening." 

"What are you going to watch over me to make sure that I’m not going anywhere?" Dinah asked a smile on her face. 

"Sounds like a good idea, but my original plan was to appeal to your common sense, we both know that an injury can and most likely will cause some trouble. I’d rather make sure that you’re fully healed before we’re putting both of our lives on the line." Laurel replied almost casually while she wrapped the bandage around Dinah’s shoulder for the second time this night. 

"You’re sounding really mature and responsible right now." Dinah said unable to hide the hint of surprise in her voice.

"Like I said, common sense. Is that too tight?" Laurel asked while Dinah shook her head and said "No thank you, it’s good like this." 

"I guess I’ll leave then. Call me when you’re ready to go out there." Laurel said hesitantly, gaze lingering on Dinah before she turned to go. 

"Laurel… Wait." Dinah said, making Laurel turn around.

"It’s late, you can stay here if you want to." Dinah motioned towards the couch offering a small smile to Laurel who stood still, not quite sure what to say. 

"I really don’t want to bother you, you need to rest, we want your shoulder to get better, right?" 

"You’re not bothering me, I have some blankets and pillows that you can use. Just accept my offer, I’m too tired to fight about this." Laurel sighed and walked back over to the couch, sitting down on it. 

"Fine, guess I’ll sleep here then." Dinah smiled before she stood up. 

"Great, I’ll go and get you a blanket." 

"Uh no, you’re going to tell me where I can get the blanket, you’re not carrying anything with your shoulder." Laurel protested loudly.

"You need to relax, it’s not that bad, it’s just a little injury, I’ve had worse and I’m sure the same goes for you. It’s not like I said that I’m planning to go bench pressing, I’m just getting a blanket and pillows for you. You’re welcome to help me get the pillows, if you insist on helping." Dinah said trying to hide a smile, it was kind of cute how worried Laurel suddenly was even though Dinah never would’ve admitted that out loud. 

"Fine." Laurel mumbled following after Dinah to get a blanket and some pillows.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Dinah was sitting in her office, getting paperwork done since her injury stopped her from going into the field anyways. 

Suddenly the door was ripped open and Felicity stormed inside. 

"Felicity, nice to see you. What can I do for you?" Dinah asked with a raised eyebrow, a bit taken by surprise by her visitor. 

"Oliver told me what happened last night, how are you?" Felicity asked looking worried. 

"I’m doing good, it’s just a scratch." Dinah said calmly.

"Oliver said you’ve been stabbed, that’s hardly just a scratch. What were you even doing there on your own, I thought you didn’t want to do the whole vigilante thing anymore?" Felicity said sounding almost accusing. 

"To my defense, I asked Laurel to come along." Dinah said flinching when she saw the expression on Felicity’s face change. 

"What do you mean you asked Laurel? Did it occur to you that this was a bad idea?" 

"It wasn’t a bad idea, she declined so I went on my own, she was the one who called Oliver. Things probably would’ve been worse if she hadn’t." Dinah said while Felicity looked at her skeptically.   
"Since when are you so anti Laurel again?" Dinah asked when Felicity didn’t reply. 

"I’m not anti Laurel, I just don’t think we should trust her." 

"Do I need to remind you that she was the one that’s basically responsible for getting Oliver out of prison? You didn’t seem to mind her help when it came to getting him out of jail." Dinah replied, slowly getting angry. 

"Just because she helped us once, doesn’t mean that she’s magically redeemed and trustworthy." 

"So what you’re saying is, when she helped to get Oliver out of jail she was good enough but now she isn’t?" 

"How are we supposed to know if she has really changed? Maybe she’s just a good actress." Felicity said with a shrug. 

"How is she supposed to change when we don’t give her a chance or a reason to? I don’t care what you guys are going to do, but I am going to put a little faith in her, she deserves the benefit of the doubt. I see that she’s trying to change, why would I risk that?" Dinah said flipping over one of the pages in the file that was in front of her. 

Felicity didn’t look happy but she nodded slowly before she said "Okay, that’s your decision, just be careful." 

"Thank you, I will be." Dinah replied looking up at Felicity before asking "Is there something else, because otherwise I’m kind of busy with work." 

"Oh, yes of course. I guess I’ll leave then." Felicity said quickly turning around and leaving the office, shutting the door behind her.   
Dinah closed the file and leaned back in her chair, breathing out slowly. 

She didn’t want to get into a fight with anyone from team Arrow, especially not now when Oliver was working with the police department. She knew that Rene wouldn’t approve of her little arrangement with Laurel either, but she felt like it was the right thing to do. 

She was the one who was responsible for planting the idea in Laurel’s mind, she wouldn’t back out now that Laurel had decided to take the opportunity. 

There was a knock on her door, Dinah looked up as soon as the door slowly opened, seeing Laurel enter the room. 

"Do you have some time?" Laurel asked sounding almost shy.

"Yes, of course. Is there something I can help you with?" Dinah replied while Laurel stepped inside the office and sat down in front of Dinah’s desk. 

"I saw Felicity when I got here, she didn’t look too happy." Laurel said biting her lip before she looked back at Dinah. 

"Yeah I know, she’ll come around." Dinah said not letting Laurel see that she was still deeply bothered by Felicity’s reaction. 

"It was because of me, wasn’t it? You told her and of course she wasn’t okay with it."

Dinah saw a hint of hurt flash up in Laurel’s eyes before it was replaced with something that came dangerously close to anger. 

"Felicity thinks I shouldn’t trust you enough to go out there with you, I could lie and tell you that she does trust you but that’s not the case, at least not right now. I won’t pretend that it will be much different with the others, I can only tell you that I hope that they’ll come around at some point. If that’s not good enough for you and you don’t want to do it under these circumstances, I totally get it since it’s dangerous if we’re completely on our own."

"Could you hold your breath for a minute and give me the chance to say something as well?" Laurel interrupted her.

"Of course, sorry." Dinah said quickly looking at Laurel expectantly. 

"I still want to do this, I don’t care what the others think." 

She was lying and both of them knew it, deep down a part of Laurel cared quite much about what the rest of team Arrow was thinking of her, but she would never admit to that. 

Dinah nodded slowly before she leaned back in her chair eyeing Laurel carefully.   
She wanted to do this with Laurel, she knew that there were risks but it would be a good chance to get to know Laurel better and for Laurel to prove herself to everyone. 

"We have to make sure that we don’t get caught." Dinah said while Laurel returned her gaze. 

"Yeah, I figured that much, but how? It’s not exactly easy to go out there in the canary suits and not be seen by at least some people, don’t you think?"

"Then we have to make sure that no one can talk about it." Dinah replied while Laurel raised her eyebrow surprised.

"Not sure if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, but it sounds highly illegal." 

"I meant we need to discredit whoever possibly sees us, what were you implying?" Dinah replied with a smirk while Laurel rolled her eyes. 

"You worded it like that on purpose, didn’t you?" 

"You didn’t seriously think that I would attempt to potentially kill someone?" Dinah asked with a smirk while Laurel shook her head trying to hide the faint smile that stole its way onto her face. 

"I should get back to work, it’s going to be a long day at the office." Laurel said standing up and heading for the door. 

"When do you get off of work?" Dinah asked quickly making Laurel turn around with a skeptic expression on her face. 

"Not sure, it’s probably going to be late, maybe around ten? Why are you asking?" 

Dinah smiled before she replied with a "I just thought that maybe this time I could buy you something for dinner." 

Laurel looked surprised and for a few seconds Dinah saw something like vulnerability but Laurel quickly hid it under a smile.

"Italian?" She asked and Dinah smiled back at her before she nodded. 

"Do you want something specific, perhaps what I had last time?" 

"You knew that you had my order, didn’t you?" Laurel asked in disbelief while Dinah just smirked at her knowingly.

"I probably should’ve given you some more credit, not bad Drake, not bad at all." 

"Very funny, I think you wanted to leave." Dinah said unable to hide her smile from Laurel. 

"You’re right, I’ll see you tonight." The DA replied before she left Dinah’s office.


	7. Chapter 7

"Tell me that you’re not working with Laurel, please." Dinah looked up from her files in annoyance. 

"Curtis, nice to see you as well. Could you maybe knock next time you enter my office?" She replied sarcastically while she tried not to roll her eyes at her former team member. 

"Don’t try to dodge the question." He replied quickly while he nervously fidgeted with his fingers. 

"I am not trying to dodge any questions, I’m sure Felicity had already informed you about everything and frankly, I don’t want to hear anything on the topic anymore because my decision stands." 

Curtis sighed before he sat down in front of Dinah’s desk.   
"I know that you don’t want to hear it and I know that Felicity already told you this, but I really think that this is a horrible idea. You should know that, you know what she did." Curtis said before Dinah interrupted him.

"Exactly, I know what she did, emphasize on the did. You’re all very quick to judge when it comes to her past, yet it seems like you all discredit what she is doing for us right now. I can’t believe that Felicity acts like Laurel is all bad news, when she was the one who got Oliver out of jail. With that being said, I won’t discuss this any longer because I’m tired of it. I don’t need your approval for my decisions, granted, I would like it if you were to approve of them, but I’ll do this with or without the old team." 

Another sigh from Curtis side before he mumbled something that sounded a lot like "You’re so crazy stubborn." before he looked at Dinah. 

"You really want to do this, don’t you?" 

"Yes, I don’t get why all of you are so against it." Dinah replied trying to hide the anger in her voice. 

Curtis sighed once again, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t comfortable with the situation but yet here he was, going on about something that wasn’t his decision to make. 

"Has Felicity told René?" Dinah asked while Curtis shook his head quickly.

"Right, because he would’ve already showed up here if that were the case." Dinah said quietly before she looked at Curtis again. 

"You’re not going to tell him, are we clear on this?" Another hasty nod from Curtis followed by an almost shouted "of course not." 

"I know that you only came here because you care, Curtis but I kind of have to work right now and I’m completely fine." Dinah said when she realized that Curtis seemed to have no motivation to go anywhere else anytime soon. 

"Oh, yes of course. I’ll let you do your work then. Just be careful okay? I don’t want you to end up hurt."   
Dinah smiled back at him, she knew that he was only trying to look out for her. 

"I will be careful, just like I usually am. Laurel has my back, I promise." 

Curtis nodded shortly even though Dinah saw the doubt in his eyes, he tried to conceal it, but he wasn’t very good at hiding his concerns. She appreciated that he was trying though, she knew that René wouldn’t try and neither did Felicity. 

"If you need any help, just call me whenever, okay? I might not be on Laurel’s side but I am on yours, always."

"Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind." Dinah replied before Curtis left her office, leaving Dinah alone with her thoughts once again. 

She didn’t know what had changed, she originally didn’t want to trust Laurel, she wanted to give her a chance, but she never expected to trust her this quickly, but here she was, counting on her. 

Maybe it was because Laurel had sent Oliver to her help because she knew that Dinah couldn’t handle the situation on her own, maybe it was the sincerity in Laurel’s eyes that sometimes broke through the walls that the DA had put up, Dinah wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew that it was probably going to get incredibly complicated at some point.

Dinah could feel how she slowly let her guard down and she wasn’t sure wether that was a good or a bad thing. 

Laurel would probably appreciate her trust, but Dinah wasn’t sure if that put her expectations too high, she didn’t want to risk getting disappointed.

"Captain Drake? We need the Green Arrow." One of her officers who had just stepped into her office said. 

"I’ll call him, what’s going on?" Dinah asked, quickly going back to business, she was working she shouldn’t be thinking about Laurel right now. 

"Armed robbery in a bank downtown, the robbers seem to work with advanced technology and they have hostages, we could use all the help we can get." 

Dinah nodded before she reached for her phone, dialing Oliver. 

"Hey, we could use some help at a robbery downtown, can we count on the Green Arrow?" Dinah asked as soon as she heard Oliver’s "Dinah, what can I do for you?" 

"Don’t you want to ask Laurel for help instead?" Oliver said in his usual grumpy voice.

"Wow, seriously? Maybe you’re right and I should ask Laurel instead of you next time. Meanwhile could you maybe get here so we can stop the robbery instead of discussing my choices in partners?" Dinah asked unwilling to hide her annoyance any longer. 

Oliver mumbled "Fine, will be there in five." before the line went dead and Dinah put her phone down, noticing that the officer was still in her office staring at her wide eyed.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked raising her eyebrow at him, making him quickly shake his head.

"You’re allowed to leave now. Report back to me as soon as we hear something new from the situation." Dinah said, the officer nodding quickly before he rushed out of the office. 

Dinah thought about driving to the crime scene but she wouldn’t be much of a help there since she couldn’t go inside the bank with her shoulder.   
She could navigate everything from the precinct, there was no need to drive downtown with the other officers and she still had a lot of paperwork to do anyways. 

She had a lot of stuff to work through and yet somehow she just couldn’t get rid off that little part in her mind that couldn’t stop thinking about Laurel.


End file.
